Erics River Cave & More
The clock said 7:45 AM when I woke. My brother’s alarm hadn’t gone off and I was now running an hour late. Therefore, Sean and I arrived at Eric’s River Cave around 11:30. It was absolutely gorgeous outside. We geared up and hiked down the trail, across the creek, and followed an in-feeding stream to the cave entrance. The water was lower than the last time I’d been here and the beaver dam no longer dammed the spring water.
I didn’t recall which hole we were supposed to enter but we chose the most obvious one with blowing air. The cave began as a crawlway. Not far ahead, I encountered a manhole in the floor which led to more crawlway below. After a couple hundred feet of crawling, some of which was a little wet, we emerged into walking passage. We climbed a mud bank to the left and checked out a short downstream continuation of the borehole which ended in breakdown.
Further into the cave, the ceiling increased in height. We often sloshed through knee deep water and slid on the slick mud banks. Sean requested a picture of some soda straws so we paused for a few minutes there.
Further ahead, the passage became more decorated and reminded me slightly of Jesse Elliot cave. I tried to take a picture of a blind fish but it had disappeared by the time I finally got the focus right. We were now looking for the flying blind fish passage. We hiked for quite awhile through the large, wet, and slick river borehole before encountering a dry, walking side passage on the right. There was no climbing involved so we doubted that it was the flying blind fish passage but decided to check it out anyway. Soon we encountered breakdown. We climbed up into the breakdown and explored every possible route up there. We climbed back down out of the breakdown and followed the sound of water below the breakdown into a crawlway. The passage became lower than hands and knees and wet so we got our arms and legs wet continuing.
I saw a large cave crayfish and got a couple good pictures of it. I also saw a lobster-size crayfish but it disappeared before I got a picture. We soon wriggled through the breakdown into a larger room with a 15’ waterfall. The water fell out of a stoop walk passage which doesn’t appear to have been accessed. Sean amused himself with fossils and interesting bands in the limestone at the base of the room while I climbed up the breakdown to get a picture looking down towards Sean and also incorporating the waterfall. The camera was having trouble focusing but I eventually got it. We could climb to the level of the in-feeding stoop walk passage but determined the traverse was too dangerous to attempt. We climbed higher into the breakdown and determined that none of those leads went and then began to exit. Sean noticed a northern long eared bat clinging to a rock which I photographed.
I got back through the wet section when Sean called me back and said the crawlway continued upstream. I managed to turn around passage the low wet spot and went back to meet him. About 30 feet upstream the crawl ended in breakdown.
Eventually, we headed back out the wet crawlway. Sean encountered the monster crayfish and trapped him in a pool of water with his hand so I could get a picture. Then we came back out into walking passage and checked out some dry crawlways. My crawlway S’ed around and then decreased in size. I could see a black hole so I wormed ahead and then climbed up through a tight squeeze into a small room. I checked it out and saw that I could have gone a little higher if I’d started to dig at the breakdown above me but I thought that was a bad idea.
I contorted my way back out and met Sean who had checked out the other split in the crawlway. We went back to the walking passage and Sean climbed a side dome. I tried to photograph his ascent but my fireflies weren’t working. Earlier, I’d opened my dry box and it had water in it. My camera and the strobe weren’t affected. I’ll give the fireflies the benefit of the doubt and assume the water caused them to stop working. He descended after scooping a little virgin booty and we walked back to the main passage and continued upstream.
Soon we heard water pouring into the stream and saw a small waterfall emitting from a side passage on the right wall. Someone had piled rocks to make it easier to get into the passage. We climbed up. The water was falling of some sort of impermeable layer, likely chert. The water actually disappeared through a crack in the floor about 4 feet into the passage rather than falling over the ledge. It was neat!
We continued ahead and immediately saw why Aaron had told us this was a must see passage. The entire passage consisted of clean-washed, heavily scalloped, and sometimes knurly limestone. The passage profiles and passage shapes were really, really neat and always changing. We crawled and then walked, climbed, and contorted down the often changing, very picturesque wet passage. We often encountered deep pools of water which we avoided by skirting across submerged breakdown knifes and climbed along the walls. You couldn’t just walk down the passage. You had to traverse it. Our legs and arms worked together as we monkey-ed down the passage. It was quite fun. At a particularly picturesque spot, I tried to take a picture but my fireflies were defiantly set on failure. I left my dry box there and we continued ahead.
We eventually lost the water and soon found a parallel passage that pirated the stream which we opted to check out on the way out since we expected it to connect back with the passage we’d already traversed. I had to stop briefly to take in the beauty of the limestone walls looking down the parallel passage. Not far ahead we entered a larger breakdown area. I climbed up to the right and checked out a short side lead. I came back down and Sean and I split a Powerbar before continuing. Eventually, we hit a breakdown blockage. About 12 feet before the blockage was a climb-up. I could see at least 20 feet above. I wondered if I could bypass the breakdown but also noticed the scary floating breakdown rocks that I wouldn’t want to touch. We’d already encountered many large, loose breakdown blocks in other sections of the cave. I felt explorative and managed to chimney and climb up without touching the scary breakdown. I climbed about 25 feet up into a dry formation room. As I crawled across, I noted that at least one other person had been here. It didn’t look like more than 2 people had come this way though.
On the other side of the dirt floored formation room was a hole that dropped back down towards the stream. The wall on my side was composed of breakdown. Nearly everything in this part of the cave is composed of breakdown. I chucked a couple rocks down and asked Sean if he heard them. I determined that it was a bypass and after doing some gardening carefully descended below. I found a hole that I could peer through and see Sean but it wasn’t big enough and required sliding around the floating breakdown. Sean soon started my way and I continued ahead. I knew that there used to be a second entrance so when I found another climb up I was intrigued and wanted to get as high as I could.
This area of the cave scared me. It was definitely a death trap. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all composed of breakdown and much of it appeared loose. I carefully ascended about 35 feet up trying to stay below or near larger, more secure breakdown rocks. Eventually, I came to a spot where I could see another 15 - 20 feet up through a hole but knew the hole was too small for me. I climbed back down and checked out below. The passage continued narrowly ahead. Unfortunately, the passage was only 1.5 – 2 feet wide and the entire 10 ft tall right was composed entirely of small breakdown. It was so enticing. I really wanted to keep going but had a bad feeling about the whole area. I was actually scared and could easily envision being crushed or trapped back here. Today was not my day to die, so I carefully retreated and Sean and I routed back to the parallel passage.
Sean began to work his body through an awkwardly tight crack and asked me if we really wanted to do this. I told him we did and soon started through the crack diagonally, momentarily wedging myself, before sliding through into the stream. We soon encountered the passage we’d been in before and routed back to my dry box. I once lost my entire left leg in the water because I missed the breakdown knife. I tried to take a couple pictures back at the entrance of the flying blindfish passage. I got a couple before my firefly died. Then we continued upstream. We began to stoop walk. It’s strange, we always travel faster when we start stoop walking. I was almost jogging. We’d already passed one split in the passage and after awhile encountered another where we decided to turn back. We routed back to the flying blind fish passage and continued out.
It didn’t seem like we’d come very far entering the cave but it took forever to get out. I knew that my blood sugar was low and that I needed food. I felt rather out-of-it. My light was also very dim. Sean’s light behind me was casting more than mine. So I led the charge out of the cave. We routed as fast as possible sometimes slipping into the water or sliding down onto a slick mud floor. We were moving at a fast pace but it still took forever to get out of the cave. After what seemed an eternity and reminded me of our long hike in Blue Spring I finally spotted the other dry box I’d brought into the cave. I picked it up and we continued onward. Finally, we came to the beginning of the crawl and soon I was contorting up threw the manhole and crawling into the beautiful sunshine. I immediately threw my gear down and quickly clutched my camera from its case in time to catch Sean emerging from the cave entrance. We drank some water and walked back to the car.
I grabbed some Powerbars out of my food bag and realized the chocolate eggs and bunny were totally melted. I couldn’t let them go to waste and didn’t want them to dirty my bag so I ripped off the bunnies ears and drank him squeezing his innards out of his aluminum skin. I immediately thought Sodium! It was extremely salty. I had a couple Powerbars and a few chocolate egg shots before changing. I felt much better and was now ready to cave again.
We drove over to Wyandotte Lake, geared up and headed to Sharpe Spring. I soon spotted it and bo'd Sean in. Sean had stayed on the other side of the creek because he was wearing dry boots. The spring is quite impressive. It produces a major amount of water. It definitely provides more water than we saw in Breathing Hole and Wildcat Cave. There's no dry cave here so we took a couple pictures and climbed up the hill to Sheep Cave.
Sheep Cave was rather fun. We descended through a crack down a 10 ft climb down into a small room and cork screwed around clockwise into a larger area. From here we checked out both ends of the passage at that level and descended further below. There are a few different routes to the lower level from here. Eventually, we found the bottom. There were not leads and no airflow. After checking every corner of the cave we climbed back out and headed towards Sharpe Creek Cave.
On our way, we stumbled upon Siberts Well. Of course we had to tour it. The entrance does actually look like a well and descends 10 feet to a small room. A lot of water can be heard flowing from outisde the entrance. We soon encountered that water and crawled upstream. I really liked some of the limestone, if it was limestone. It was polished white and had cracks. Below the outer shell, through the cracks, it looked like calcite. Anyway, about 125 feet upstream Sean encountered a deeper area of water and said we'd have to get really wet. I went ahead since we only had to get thigh deep and Sean followed. Then I encountered a tight belly crawl. I told Sean that if I were wearing poly pro instead of a T shirt I'd check it out so he checked it out. On the way back to the entrance I also told Sean that if I were wearing polypro I'd feed my body into a water filled alcove to see if it went but he didn't seem real enthusiastic. I soon lost Sean who was caving a little slow in just socks and headed downstream. After a short crawl overtop some breakdown slabs the passage lowered and I got to walk a little bit before crawling, stooping, squeezing, contorting, and worming through the rest of the cave. Sean said that Wyandotte led tourist in Siberts well but they definitely wouldn't bring anybody here. This is a cavers cave. Near the back, I encountered some nice formations. I got to a duck under and managed to keep my upper half dry going through. Beyond, the passage lowered down to nearly a belly crawl in water and a scrapy, breakdown protruding hole continued above. I waited in the dark for my polypro-ed friend. He checked out the scrapy lead but understandably didn't soak himself to check out the lower lead. We routed back out of Sibert's Well and Sean provided a very strange pose as he exited the cave.
We hadn't visited our 6 caves yet so we continued to Sharpe Creek Cave. The entrance is an impressive 18' W x 7' T but it quickly becomes a small tube-like crawlway. Sean waited for his wet booted friend at some nasty, stagnant pooled water. I couldn't help but wonder if a friend of mine would drink it. I hope he wouldn't :) I continued ahead until I encountered a mud pinch at the end of the cave. We routed and hiked back to the car. We had a wonderful day caving. The weather was awesome! I felt very lucky to have been out doors. I listened to the chirping frogs on the hike back and thought how much I looked forward to hearing a friendly "coqui" again.
Sean views an interesting display of soda straws.
Eric's River
An unfocusable blind fish.
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Erics River
I almost got it focuses before he disappeared.
This bat is very wet.
Eric's River
Kind of scary looking with his face blacked out.
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Erics River
Sean said this is a northern long eared bat.
A side profile of a northern long eared bat.
Erics River
His ears grow when he lies ;)
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Erics River
My first blind cave crayfish picture :)
My second blind cave crayfish picture.
Erics River
He got out of picture range but the pic is still pretty cool.
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Erics River
A waterfall in the back of the side passage just downstream of the flying blind fish passage.
Sean looks up towards a brachiopod attached to a small piece of corral barely clinging to the wall.
Eric's River
We found a lobster! :)
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Erics River
The huge crayfish tries to escape.
Another monster crayfish picture.
Eric's River
Sean stands at the entrance of the flying blind fish passage.
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Erics River
Sean climbs out of the entrance to Erics River Cave.
Sean stands next to the spring below Erics River Cave.
Eric's River
Another spring shot.
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The Woods
Sean walking back through the lovely green woods back to the car.
This sign was cool so I had to take a picture of it.
Random Sign
The reds (rednecks) shot the hell out of this.
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Sign
A different view of the shot-up sign.
A river emerges form Sharpe Spring
Sharpe
I wonder what cave lies between here and Wildcat.
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Sharpe
Sean looks for cave but finds none.
Sean recently played the role of Gollum in LOTR :)
Sharpe
That's a crazy amount of water!
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Sharpe
I can definitely see why they dived it.
100 feet above Sharpe Spring lies Sheep Cave.
Sheep Cave
Sean takes off to explore the cave.
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Sheep Cave
Sean squeezes up the climb down.
An action shot.
Sheep Cave
Sean's either stuck or posing.
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Sharpe
Sean poses on top of the bluff overlooking Sharpe Spring.
A landscape view.
Sharpe
Another angle.
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Siberts Well
We stumbled upon Siberts Well and toured it of course.
Another sign.
Siberts Well
Sean descends down the well but he's not fetching water.
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Siberts Well
Yes, Sean did do the cave in socks. What a pose!
Sean climbs out of Siberts Well.
Spider
A spider had infiltrated my backpack.
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Spider
I put my finger over the flash and this was the result. It really is blood red :)
The entrance to Sharpe Creek Shelter Cave.
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